Dino Crisis
Dino Crisis is a survival horror/action adventure game by Capcom that was released in 1999. It was originally released for the Sony PlayStation and later for the Sega Dreamcast and Windows. It was also produced and directed by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami. The game centers around a special forces team who must find a way to survive in a secret government facility that is being infested by time-displaced dinosaurs. It features similar gameplay to the Resident Evil series and although Capcom promoted Dino Crisis as part of its own unique sub-genre dubbed "panic horror", it is often categorized by the gaming press and public as another survival horror game. While Dino Crisis did not achieve the same level of success Resident Evil did, it was popular enough to gain two sequels: (Dino Crisis 2 and Dino Crisis 3) and a light gun-based spinoff in Capcom's Gun Survivor series, known as Dino Stalker in America and Gun Survivor 3 : Dino Crisis in Japan. Characters * Regina (Stephanie Morgenstern) - The player's character and the sole female member of the team. She is an intelligence agent and weapons expert, specializing in weapons maintenance. * Gail (Richard Yearwood) - A veteran spy, and the leader of the team. He is well known for his cold demeanor and seems to have a heart of stone. He carries a large heavy machine gun and his field of expertise seems to be combat. He cares a lot about his mission. * Rick (Alex Karzis) - The third member of the team and an expert computer hacker. He carries a Sniper Rifle. He seems to be much more easy-going than Gail, providing most of the comic relief. He is African-American. * Cooper (Robert Tinkler) - The fourth member of the extraction team. He's blown off course at the start of the mission and ends up being eaten by a T. Rex. The rest of the team never learns this, and he is declared M.I.A. He carried the only outsourcing radio on the team, and his death puts the rest of the members in a bind. * Tom (Bino Tautorrez) - An agent of S.O.R.T., who has infiltrated the Ibis Island facility to investigate the reports of new-type weapons being researched. He is wounded by a dinosaur, and later dies. * Dr. Edward Kirk (Adrian Tuss) - The genius behind the Third Energy Theory. He was approached by the Borginian Republic who were interested in the properties of Third Energy as a weapon, and promised him all the funding, facilities, researchers and equipment he needed. To that end, he staged his death and moved to Ibis Island, to where a Third Energy research facility had been set up for him and killed most of his workers with the help of the dinos. Dinosaurs There are only a small number of dinosaurs featured in the game, however some species have different forms that provide different levels of resistance to being killed, and do varying levels of damage. *Velociraptor: The first species encountered in gameplay, and the most common throughout. Velocirapors lurk in the corridors and rooms of the facilities and can ambush you on occasion, helping to give the game a suspenseful atmosphere. There is more than one colour model for the raptors, with animals encountered later in the game harder to kill. *Compsognathus: A small, bird sized dinosaur found in the corridors of the facility, around decomposing bodies. There can a a number of them in a group, and can damage you in the game. *Pteranodon: A large pterosaur that frequently attacks in open, outdoor areas. Due to their ability to fly, they can pose a problem to kill, and cause serious damage when they attack, on occasion picking Regina up and dropping her again. *Therizinosaurus: A large sloth like carnivourous dinosaur with huge claws. These are found in the latter part of the game, and are quite hard to kill, especially when there are more than one of them. They are found in more open areas generally. *Tyrannosaurus: The single, large tyrannosaur is one of the main aggrivators in the game, taking out a misguided team member in the beginning, and continually harrassing Regina throughout the course of the storyline. It should be noted that the Tyrannosaurus can't be killed with any weapon Regina possesess. Gameplay Dino Crisis is best described as a Panic Horror game, with the focus of the game not on action, but high suspense, and often puzzle based gameplay. There is of course, times when resorting to using weapons in your only hope of survival but weapons and ammunition are often hard to come by, but this can be aided by creating your own forms of darts. The game's storyline is carried out exlusively at night, aiding the eerie and often disturbing feeling of the game. The music also contributes to the sense of isolation in the facility, and there is often no warning as to when a dinosaur may ambush you. Dino Crisis' weapons inculde a pistol, shotgun and a grenade launcher, with varying forms of ammo found in the facility, including tranquilliser darts that can be modified using various substances into deadly poison darts. Generally, the larger the enemy, the more firepower is required to kill them, with therizinosaurs and pterandons being the hardest animals to kill. The game integrates a range of puzzle solving into the storyline, with various disks and password keys needed to open doors. Other puzzles involve logistics, such as moving pipes and crates in the right sequence to allow gameplay to procede. During puzzle solving, there are generally no dinosaurs to harrass Regina. Reviews *IGN: 9.2 out of 10 (92%) (PlayStation version reviewed) *GameSpot: 8.5 out of 10 (85%) (PlayStation version reviewed) *Edge (magazine): 8 out of 10 (80%) (PlayStation version reviewed) Trivia * When Rick says to Regina "This is just like that movie" (referring to the dinosaurs they encounter) , he is referring to the 1993 blockbuster film, Jurassic Park. * When the prehistoric costume is equipped, the guns Regina has change form. For example, the grenade launcher turns into a fish tied to a large stick. * Certain crates found across the facility bear the symbol of the umbrella corporation, who were the villains of fellow survival-horror game Resident Evil. External links *Official American Website *Official Japanese Website * Category:games